Home or commercial lighting comes under Internet control

At this weeks Lightfair International conference in Philidelphia, NXP, TCP and GreenWave Reality will be demonstrating a consumer-ready, Internet-enabled smart lighting network powered by the NXP GreenChip smart lighting solution.

The solution reduces the electronics required so that it can fit in a normal light bulb. It includes wireless IP connectivity, energy-efficient lighting and standby power down to 50mW.

It is available in two versions, the GreenChip iCFL for compact fluorescents and GreenChip iSSL for LEDs. These include the GreenChip iCFL or GreenChip iSSL chipsets, which function as efficient, dimmable drivers for smart lamps and a n ultra-low-power standby supply controller with 10mW no-load capability. Standby power is particularly critical in smart lighting applications where lamps are continuously 'listening' for the command from the user and/or network.

Also included are a 2.4-GHz IEEE 802.15.4 standard-compatible wireless microcontroller with a Tx/Rx current below 17mA and IP-based wireless connectivity enabled by JenNet-IP network layer software.

GreenChip-enabled light bulbs will be able to operate on the same wireless sensor networks consumers may be using at home for energy metering, smart appliances and security systems. NXP’s JenNet-IP network layer software provides the wireless connectivity in the GreenChip smart lighting solution.

JenNet-IP is a 6LoWPAN mesh-under tree network with low memory footprint, specifically targeting low-power IEEE 802.15.4-based networking for residential and industrial applications. Based on NXP’s JenNet network protocol stack, JenNet-IP provides a robust self-healing tree network proven at over 500 nodes, supporting IPv4 and IPv6 with over-network upgradability. JenNet-IP provides 128-bit AES encryption with secure authentication and device joining, and will be made available under an Open Source license in the fourth quarter of 2011.

TCP, a manufacturer of CFL and LED lamps based in North America, has been an early adopter of Smart Lighting technology, and is using the GreenChip smart lighting solution for both its CFL and LED lamps.

The system will enable consumers to dim or turn lights on and off using Home, Away, and Night Smart Controls from any combination of devices such as a PC, smartphone, and even a TV. It will also extend the lighting smart controls to work with sensors without requiring any re-wiring of the home.

The smart control can adjust indoor lighting according to outdoor lighting conditions or automatically turn lights off when no one is in a room.